Some call Georgian a good fit for Obama
Ex-Sen. Nunn an ally with defense expertise
WASHINGTON - When a newly elected Senator Barack Obama was staking out issues to champion in Congress, he sent word that he would like to meet with a former senator he had admired from afar: Sam Nunn of Georgia.
Nunn, who during a 24-year Senate career earned a reputation as the Democratic Party's foremost defense advocate while amassing a moderate voting record, met Obama at his office in February 2005. There, the two talked for hours about the issue on which Nunn has spent much of the last two decades: preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.
The liberal freshman from Illinois and the national security specialist from rural Georgia immediately hit it off, according to interviews with confidants of the two men.
Nunn, whose somewhat colorless demeanor hides a passion for defense policy, was clearly impressed with Obama's command of the subject, and Obama has called on Nunn since to discuss arms control legislation and other matters, the confidants said.
For two decades, Nunn has been floated as a potential vice presidential candidate by virtue of his national security credentials and conservative southern roots. And each time he has dis missed such talk out of hand, while the party's nominees opted for more liberal choices from states more likely to go Democratic in November.
But this year, the personal and intellectual affinity between the presumptive Democratic nominee and the 69-year-old elder statesman - who abandoned a policy of not backing candidates in Democratic primaries when he endorsed Obama in April - makes him a real possibility as Obama's running mate, according to interviews with current and former government officials who know both men.
"He sounds like he may be more open to it," said Arnold Punaro, a retired Marine Corps general who served on Nunn's Senate staff for 24 years and remains in close contact with his former boss. "He has never before endorsed anybody. That was a surprise to me."
Nunn declined to be interviewed for this story and has weighed in only once publicly on the 2008 veepstakes, telling the Atlanta Journal-Constitution last month that he thought it was "highly improbable" that Obama would ask him to be vice president and "highly improbable" that he would accept.
Those close to Nunn, speaking on condition of anonymity, say he seems more prepared to accept a vice presidential offer this year, helping to offset Obama's lack of experience on national security and giving the Democrats a fighting chance in Georgia.
"I think he would be an excellent choice and would have to be in the top three or four for Obama," said former secretary of defense William S. Cohen. Cohen, a Republican and former senator from Maine, and Nunn recently launched a bipartisan policy dialogue, sponsored by the centrist Center for Strategic and International Studies, designed to elevate nuclear security, climate change, national service, and other "seminal" issues in the national debate.
As a "Southern moderate-to-conservative with a tremendous background on security, [Nunn] would complement [Obama's] tremendous gifts," Cohen said.
Nunn also remains a key political and business figure in his home state, which has not voted Democratic in a presidential election since 1992.
Merle Black, a political scientist at Emory University in Atlanta, said he believes Nunn could boost Obama's electoral chances in Georgia. "He is still a heavyweight" in local politics, Black said.
But others stress the potential drawbacks to an Obama-Nunn ticket. Nunn, who will turn 70 before Election Day, could undercut assertions that an Obama administration would bring a youthful vibrancy in stark contrast to his 71-year-old Republican opponent John McCain. Nunn himself cited a lack of "zest and enthusiasm" for politics when retiring from the Senate in 1997. Putting Nunn on the ticket could also take some of the sheen from Obama's image of change.
Meanwhile, his past stance against gays serving openly in the military would probably alienate some elements of the Democratic Party.
"It is hard to see [that] the really left wing of the Democratic party would look favorably on him," said Black.
And Nunn's law practice and business dealings - including seats on the boards of Chevron,
But Nunn's post-Senate career has focused on much more than corporate leadership. His prime focus has been on reducing the spread of nuclear materials, part of a lifelong interest in foreign affairs that was passed down by his great-uncle, Carl Vinson, who served in Congress for more than a half-century, from World War I to the Vietnam War.
Vinson, for whom the young Nunn worked, played a leading role in building America's modern military and later was honored when a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier was named for him.
Nunn was raised on his family's farm. After graduating from Georgia Tech University and Emory University Law School, he served six years in the Coast Guard Reserve and was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives in 1968. Just four years later, he moved to the US Senate, where he often broke with his own party, supporting school prayer, opposing new taxes, and voting to limit death penalty appeals.
Many Democrats are still upset with him over his role in blocking President Clinton's efforts to allow gays to serve openly in the military. However, earlier this month he appeared to soften his position, backing a Pentagon reassessment of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy.
On other signature Democratic issues such as abortion, the environment, gun control, and affirmative action, Nunn has been a loyal partisan. He also spoke out publicly against the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Nunn is currently best known for his work as cochairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a foundation he helped establish with media mogul Ted Turner to fill the gaps in government efforts to prevent nuclear proliferation.
Those efforts first drew Obama to seek out Nunn. According to aides to both men, Obama has elicited Nunn's advice on several pieces of legislation, including to accelerate plans to secure nuclear material from the former Soviet Union.
"They get along really well," said a senior Obama foreign policy adviser, noting that one of his boss's phone calls to Nunn was before Obama traveled to Russia and Ukraine in 2005 to inspect security at weapons facilities. "Nunn is in that category of smart, tough advice."
The adviser declined to be identified discussing private conversations of his boss.
Obama has even tried to follow in Nunn's footsteps, teaming up with Republican Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana to secure "loose nukes."
It was Nunn and Lugar who first joined forces in the early 1990s to establish the landmark Cooperative Threat Reduction program to secure Cold War nuclear stockpiles - a program that Obama singled out in his 2006 book as "one of the most important investments we could have made to protect ourselves from catastrophe."
Nunn, for his part, is said to be more concerned than ever about the direction of the country. When he endorsed Obama he said, "We have developed a habit of avoiding the tough decisions and seemingly lost our ability to build consensus to tackle head-on our biggest challenges."
Bryan Bender can be reached at bender@globe.com.
